The European Commission has announced the establishment of an expert group who’s task will be to work on developing safe and fair terms for cloud computing contracts. The group’s objective will be to identify best practices that will address the concerns of small companies and consumers who are worried about cloud computing service contracts being unclear.

The setting up of The Expert Group is a key action under the EC’s Cloud Computing Strategy, adopted in 2012 to deal with cloud-related issues that currently go beyond the Common European Sales Law that is being negotiated. The group includes representatives from cloud service providers, SMEs, consumers, legal professionals and academics who will meet for their first group discussion 19-20th November 2013. Their input will go towards a policy paper that will launch a broad public consultation on possible avenues forward on cloud computing contracts for SMEs and consumers.

Vice President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner, said: “At the European Council, EU leaders called for action to help create a single market for cloud computing. The Commission is delivering its bit. Making full use of the opportunities presented by cloud computing could create 2.5 million extra jobs in Europe and add around 1% a year to EU’s Gross Domestic Product by 2020.” She added: “We are asking experts to provide a balanced set of contract terms for consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises to use cloud computing services with more confidence. Trust is bankable – citizens need to be able to trust that the services they use are fair and reliable.”